Local CT/NY Musicians Collaborate On Virtual Classic Rock Covers

In the absence of live music, musicians have taken to social media with live streams, acoustic performances and living room concerts. Now, a group of musicians from the Greater Danbury area have taken the process one step further and collaborated virtually on a couple of really great Classic Rock cover songs, with more to come.

The group is called "The Corona Files" and is the brainchild of Vin Sciuto, the bass player for rock duo Pete & Pru and the progressive rock band Spiral Array. He posts the working track from the selected song to an online site, with a "click track" so that each participating musician is playing the song at the same tempo. The other musicians on the song then take that track, make a recording of themselves playing the song in its own separate sound file, and re-upload it. When all the parts have been completed, one of the guys will put it all together into one final song, using a digital audio workstation and add video. The results are pretty spectacular.

The first Corona Files video released was a version of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers", with Sciuto on bass, his bandmate Peter Crane on lead vocals, Mike Andrews from the Hudson Valley band Bill's Toupee on guitar, and Bill Matthews from Spiral Array and Anchor Management on drums.

Their second release is a version of the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" featuring Glen Cruciani of the Choir Boys and Anchor Management on guitar and vocals, Sciuto on bass, and Lou Caldarola from Limelight: A Tribute To Rush on drums.

There are several more songs in various stages of completion, and all involved in the projects say it's a lot of fun, as they get to virtually play with folks they've never actually performed live with before, in some cases. We look forward to hearing more from this collective of musicians who are using their shutdown spare time to create some great music.